Arsenal 2018/19

They aren't title contenders (City will steamroll it, said it before the season and feel even more confident saying it now) but they've definitely asserted themselves as a real contender for top four, arguably a favourite to get the 4th spot .. which is worrying for us.

I'll admit at the start of the season I wasn't expecting them to improve so quickly, I thought Emery would eventually do well but would need time to revert the rot. They've impressed me and a few players I had written off, Xhaka especially, have massively improved under him.

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Yeah, that would be me too I think. They look stronger than Utd certainly - busier in the MF & more incisive up top.

I'm still not convinced by Xhaka, mind. Even trying to be positive I can't do any better than ''nice left foot but...'' - they've got him running about though, at least.

Why let perceptions colour your interpretation of the game. It was a tightly fought match against a quality opponent and Arsenal definitely finished stronger. Thats going to be as good as it gets for us this season. Get a winger in place of Mkhitaryan and a genuine defender in place of Mustafi(even though he was good in this match) and then we can be disappointed to be drawing with City/Liverpool at home.

I'd agree with your point about ambitions with respect how the club should act/behave. However given your transfer activity activity, you don't really have the team to aim for the stars IMO. The standards can be really high once the ambition off the pitch matches it, rather than our of the blue, or due to this being Arsenal.

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I agree that ambition off the pitch must match the ambition on it but for some reason, I still don't want the manager and the players to get into the mindset of simply fighting for fourth. Push for the title until its mathematically impossible. I just want more for Arsenal and wish I could say Kroenke and the board felt the same.

Bournemouth could go 'right, we're heading for the title this season lads!' and I'm pretty sure they would still finish mid table. Alright, so Arsenal aren't Bournemouth, but the point is that you don't win just by being overly ambitious and setting big targets, just because you aim for the title doesn't mean you're likely going to get top 4. You'll get top 4 if you're good enough to be there.

Emery hasn't had long at the club and took you over when you were badly struggling, so understandably fans are happy to see genuine progress in a short space of time. It's pretty unrealistic to immediately expect huge improvements in a single season, especially when other clubs invested heavily and have been working on their projects for much longer.

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Difference between us and Bournemouth is that we have the resources to aim for the title so that is a fairly disingenuous comparison. When I say aim for the title, I'm not talking about wishing and hoping that we somehow win it. I mean doing everything in our power to win it, buying players, improving our current staff, our fitness methods, all of it. City didn't win the title by simply saying they want to win it. They invested money into the club's training ground, facilities, bought players, brought in Guardiola and went for it.

Why can't we do the same

I didn't expect huge improvements, I don't even expect us to win the league. All I'm saying is that if we set our sights high and work towards achieving that lofty goal then its unlikely that we will fall too far below that goal.

No example really comes to mind and I'm not very familiar with how much time a long distance run should take so this will be arbitrary. Lets say you normally finish a 2km run in 8 minutes but now you want to finish in 6 minutes. When you run its likely you will do so at a pace that will lead to you finishing at or around the 6 minute mark and never really improve from there. Now if you say you want to finish in 4 minutes you will train to reach that goal and obviously increase your pace, you might not get down to 4 minutes the next time or the time after that but if you set it, as a goal then you will get there eventually.

I think its more patronizing than hype/praise. A draw at home against Liverpool of all teams, a result which is the least of what we should achieve.

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I'm surprised so many of you seemed to expect to lose. Even at our worst I went into big games at Anfield with the expectation that a result was very possible.

Emery has had a decent start but the litmus tests will come over the season, and especially when you go to the big away grounds. Drawing at home to a team that has beaten you there only three times this millennium isn't that big a deal. Ultimately, you've played 3 big games and won 0.

Because liverpool had their usual 10 minutes complete meltdown in which they gave up 3 soft goals. The remaining 80 minutes were a mauling. There's a big difference between looking competitive for 90 minutes and looking competitive for 10 minutes because the other team had a mini-meltdown

Because Liverpool had their usual 10 minutes complete meltdown in which they gave up 3 soft goals. The remaining 80 minutes were a mauling. There's a big difference between looking competitive for 90 minutes and looking competitive for 10 minutes because the other team had a mini-meltdown

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Arsenal’s home record was pretty good last year, they were terrible away.

What was impressive today was the attitude, under Arsene they'd have crumbled when they went 2-1 down. Started feeling sorry for themselves. Today they outworked and outfought a Spurs team who are known for outworking and outfighting opposition like Arsenal.

What was impressive today was the attitude, under Arsene they'd have crumbled when they went 2-1 down. Started feeling sorry for themselves. Today they outworked and outfought a Spurs team who are known for outworking and outfighting opposition like Arsenal.

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This isn't true, we came back from 2-0 down to beat Spurs 5-2 a few years back. Things went badly wrong in his last season but I'm not going to pretend like Wenger didn't have days like today during the latter half of his reign. I'm just happy Emery is continuing the great man's good work.

if you're going use terms like seen the light you'd come across much less of a dick doing so if you didn't just do it after a game he's scored two goals (one a pen) in

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To be fair, Aubameyang was obviously a world class striker and everyone knew that when he was a Dortmund. Saying "we should have bought him" is a no brainer, and it's nothing to do with hindsight. It has nothing to do with his current game either, so it's weird that you'd ever have the opinion that he isn't one player we should have went for when you consider how shite our current striker is.

This isn't true, we came back from 2-0 down to beat Spurs 5-2 a few years back. Things went badly wrong in his last season but I'm not going to pretend like Wenger didn't have days like today during the latter half of his reign. I'm just happy Emery is continuing the great man's good work.

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Sorry I should have said in his last couple of seasons, heads dropped when these things happened.

To be fair, Aubameyang was obviously a world class striker and everyone knew that when he was a Dortmund. Saying "we should have bought him" is a no brainer, and it's nothing to do with hindsight. It has nothing to do with his current game either, so it's weird that you'd ever have the opinion that he isn't one player we should have went for when you consider how shite our current striker is.

I did, countless times... I never wanted him in the first place and said in the summer I was amazed United, Chelsea and Arsenal all wasted their time spending huge money on lacazette/lukaku/morata instead of getting Auba. Lacazette tbf I like he just isnt really a lone striker type, but is showing his quality this season splitting with Aubameyang.

I had that opinion at the start of the season, and nothing throughout the season changed my mind. Hes never been good enough for a starting role at a big club because he just lacks technical ability. Dont care if he can score 40 goals in all competitions over a season, a striker who scores fewer but can create more for the rest of the team will always be more beneficial especially in tighter games (which doesnt matter since hes never even scored 30 goals across all competitions).

Sorry I should have said in his last couple of seasons, heads dropped when these things happened.

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I think that is fair. My post was just a reaction to how tired I'm getting of how people seem incapable of praising Emery without comparing him to Wenger in some fashion and casting the latter in a negative light. Its understandable given the large shadow Wenger casts over the club but I think its best to let Emery grow as his own manager without comparing everything that he does to his predecessor.

I think that is fair. My post was just a reaction to how tired I'm getting of how people seem incapable of praising Emery without comparing him to Wenger in some fashion and casting the latter in a negative light. Its understandable given the large shadow Wenger casts over the club but I think its best to let Emery grow as his own manager without comparing everything that he does to his predecessor.

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Fair point, for all the abuse Wenger gets he's still the 2nd most succesful manager in premier league history. I also don't blame him for the lack of fight more just everything became stale for both players and manager as opposed to it being Arsene's fault.

Either way you must be thrilled at how you guys have played especially after those opening 2 defeats.

Fair point, for all the abuse Wenger gets he's still the 2nd most succesful manager in premier league history. I also don't blame him for the lack of fight more just everything became stale for both players and manager as opposed to it being Arsene's fault.

Either way you must be thrilled at how you guys have played especially after those opening 2 defeats.

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I blame Wenger wholeheartedly for how stale things got. The backroom that he left the club with was the same one he brought with him. He never freshened things up coaching wise and just kept the same yes men around him. He kept faith with too many players who weren't playing for him and it cost him his job.

I was a bit wary of Emery at first, thought he was a middle of the road, safe pair of hands manager, not up there with the best of the best. But he won me over today, utterly impressive managerial performance and I can't wait to see what he does when he gets better players to work with.